Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Columbia · 1946

Pass it on

The Jolson Story

29Leave it.

The voice is Jolson's, and the triumph they cheer is done in blackface.

Take controlThis scores 29. The Jolson Story cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Larry Parks plays Al Jolson, with Jolson's voice, from a boy who will not stop singing to the star of The Jazz Singer. The marriage strains. It sat among the three largest rentals of 1946, so plenty of people wanted this telling. The act that made him famous includes blackface, and the film treats that act as the triumph. I won't file that under the period and keep humming.

It is not a neutral musical. A house that wants the voice can still refuse the mask the picture calls a peak. I would not leave it with a child who hasn't been told what the triumph is. The career is the story they paid for. The marriage is what frays while that act is cheered. If you already know the songs, you don't need this version of the life.

Journal

Keep The Jolson Story in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 29. Yours can differ.

The glance

Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Greatest Showman

40 instead of 29

The Greatest Showman is still a musical film, and it scores 40 instead of 29. What you gain is stewardship: What the performers leave with, in life, was more complicated than the finale allows.

The eight

6
Industry
Singing is the job, from a boy who will not stop to a starring act.
5
Household
There is a marriage, and the career is what strains it.
2
Piety
Nothing stops the blackface act; the film calls it the triumph.
3
Courage
He chases the stage, and the marriage is what frays for it.
2
Republic
The famous act wears blackface, and the crowd is asked to cheer.
2
Temperance
He will not stop singing, and the next peak is always the point.
2
Truth
Blackface is presented as the triumph, with no bill on the act.
1
Stewardship
Left behind is a cheered blackface act and a strained marriage.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · The Jolson Story · 29IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · 20th Century Fox · 1963

Pass it on

Cleopatra

29Leave it.

The procession is the product. The affair is the plot, and the plot is not a life.

Take controlThis scores 29. Cleopatra cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

It cost enough to nearly sink a studio, and the cost is not a quality. A queen manages Rome by managing two men, and the film is interested in the managing as a pageant and a love affair. The processions are long because the processions are what the money bought. I will not pretend the length is grandeur. Length is what you get when nobody was willing to cut the entrance.

The marriages in the way of the affair are treated as furniture. That is the part a house should not absorb. Adults can look at the barge as a document of a certain kind of Hollywood excess and then leave it. Do not sit a young person down in front of four hours in which the lesson is that history is a romance with better curtains. The crowds came. The number is not the crowds.

Journal

Keep Cleopatra in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 29. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Argo

53 instead of 29

Argo is still a history film, and it scores 53 instead of 29. What you gain is temperance: The tension is earned by waiting, not by a body count.